Members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-East are requesting that the party leadership and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, choose a running mate from the zone.
The leadership of the party in the South-East allegedly argued that having failed to cede the presidential ticket to the zone, which had consistently supported the PDP since 1999, the only thing left for the party was to cede the vice-presidential slot to it.
In May, Atiku emerged the winner of the PDP presidential primary after defeating other aspirants including a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim, and an ex-President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Sam Ohuabunwa.
A few days to the primary, Atiku’s running mate in 2019, Mr. Peter Obi, defected from PDP to the Labour Party on whose platform he would contest the 2023 presidential election.
Analysts have warned that Obi’s defection to the LP may affect the chances of the PDP in the South-East, where its presidential candidate got 1.6 million votes in 2019 against over 403,000 votes garnered by President Muhammadu Buhari, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
The Publicity Secretary of the Anambra State PDP, Nnamdi Nwagwu said, “They (South-East leaders) are making such a demand for the VP slot. Let us see how it goes. They are making the demand because every party has sidelined the South-East and it is only in the PDP that they can get the VP slot because they cannot get it from the APC as the APC already has a southern presidential candidate.
“Only the VP slot can secure votes for the party in the zone, if not, it will be difficult to wrest the votes of the region from Peter Obi. And let us see how it goes if the VP slot will be given or not.”
